Download DOWNLOAD A PAPER THAT SUMMARIZES OUR APPROACH

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
February 15, 2007
submitted to
Teaching for High Potential, National Association for Gifted Children
Global Climate Change - Motivated High School Students Gain their Voice
Paul Bierman – contact author ([email protected]; 802 863 3609)
Peter Gould
Jasmine Lamb
Christine Massey
Simon Norton
Jean Olson
Luke Reusser
John Ungerleider
With the snow-less winter of 2007 drawing to a close over much of the United
States only two years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, human-induced
climate change is on everyone’s mind. Release of the authoritative United Nationssponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in February 2007
confirmed for policy makers what most scientists have known for years; humans are
changing the world’s climate by running the biggest uncontrolled global experiment in
history. Burning fossil fuels and slashing tropical forests, we have increased atmospheric
levels of CO2 by > 30% since the dawn of the industrial revolution and unless something
changes quickly, CO2 levels will have doubled or tripled by century’s end. Climate
models suggest the world will by then be 2 to 10 degrees F warmer on average,
permanent sea ice will have vanished, and the great ice sheets of Greenland and
Antarctica may be in irreversible decline.
How does an exceptional young person deal with such a dire forecast without
losing hope, and how does he or she avoid becoming mired in a cycle of inaction and
helplessness? To address these issues, faculty of the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont, a
seven-program group of summer residential Institutes that caters to high-potential
learners, developed a weekend climate change program. The program brought together
70 of Vermont’s most motivated high school students, nearly a dozen staff, and 18
visiting specialists for a Winter Weekend of learning and action. The overarching theme
of the weekend was to understand global climate change from a variety of perspectives,
get a sense of the science, as well as a sense of the politics involved. After learning the
basics, the students worked with faculty and outside specialists to learn about solutions-personal, local, and global. Throughout the weekend, we stressed the importance of not
giving up hope, of taking action, and of finding one’s own voice to speak about this
compelling issue.
1
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
Our Approach
We explicitly designed the Focus on Global Climate Change Weekend to cross
what are typically considered disciplinary boundaries and to build on previous
programmatic knowledge. We had seven objectives for the weekend:
1. increase student awareness of human-induced climate change,
2. increase student knowledge about the science underlying changes in climate,
3. catalyze student reflection on new information and ideas to which they are
exposed,
4. provide skills, knowledge, and support to allow students to make changes in their
lives and their families lives that minimize human impact on climate,
5. catalyze action by students to provide positive societal change,
6. model ways of learning outside the classroom setting, and
7. support students as they accept and acknowledge the problems posed by humaninduced climate change.
Over the past decade, the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont residential Winter
Weekends have always had students and faculty working in separate, topically-focused
groups. The integrated approach we took this year was the result of both faculty and
student interest in approaching the pressing problem of climate change through an
interdisciplinary lens. Crossing disciplines allowed us to attract a variety of students and
appeal to a variety of learning styles. Recruiting was done on a first come/first served
basis through high school guidance counselors. The demand for the program greatly
outstripped the number of available spots with registration closing weeks ahead and
numerous students and teachers turned away.
The planning process for staff required several group meetings and conference
calls to create cohesion among the faculty, discuss curricular goals, create a working
schedule, and discuss reading materials for the students. We created a pre-weekend
packet of activities for all students and staff to complete before arriving that included: 1)
a short reading packet with science, newspaper, and popular book excerpts, 2) a graphic
“footprint” collage of household energy use on 11x17 paper, and 3) a calculation of
household carbon emissions. Staff also created a carpool list for students and visiting
speakers to encourage the reduction of carbon emissions. All of these materials are
available at the Winter Weekend website (http://uvm.edu/giv/givwinter2007).
The overall structure of the weekend moved students intellectually from learning
facts toward reflection and then taking action. Students arrived on Friday afternoon and
were immediately immersed in the issues and the science. We opened the weekend with
a local champion of climate change action, the President Pro Tempore of the Vermont
State Senate. The senator was followed by a local expert, a geologist who studies
regional climate change and climate history. We used the carbon footprinting exercise as
an icebreaker for the students and closed the evening with Too Hot Not to Handle, a
movie that moved beyond statistics to action and solutions. By the end of the first
evening the problem was clear, the importance of taking action had been well articulated,
and the students were starting down the pathway from learning facts to taking the steps
necessary to make change.
The footprinting exercise provided information we used immediately. For
example, from the footprints, we calculated the number of lights contained in all the
2
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
student and faculty homes (see the graph below). Of the nearly 3000 installed bulbs, over
2/3 were still incandescent. A simple calculation showed the students that just by
swapping out these incandescent bulbs and replacing them with energy efficient compact
fluorescents, we could save ~ 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, representing
the typical electrical use of 6 Vermont households, which use on average 7000 kilowatt
hours per year! If we use the estimate that 2 pounds of CO2 are released per kilowatt
hour of electricity used, then changing these 2000 light bulbs could reduce our collective
emissions by 80,000 pounds per year. That’s the equivalent of between one and two
household’s average yearly carbon emissions – a big change, simply done.
A very important aspect of the interdisciplinary Winter Weekend, not
only pedagogically, but in terms of empowering students to respond to critical global
issues in their own lives, was providing them with intensive exposure to different
perspectives that would allow them inroads for learning about the reality of global
climate change and finding ways to appropriately take action in their own lives and
communities.
On Saturday morning, students worked closely with faculty in disciplinary groups
considering the Science of Climate Change, gaining a voice in Performing Arts,
understanding themselves in the eco-psychology of the Body-Earth relationship, and
learning about policies in Current Issues and Youth Activism. These four strands provided
students with the scientific foundation to understand potential policy advocacy and social
action responses at a political level. The strands also allowed them to explore the
reactions and emotions that can create denial or paralysis in the face of an overwhelming
environmental threat. Students experimented with artistic expression as a holistic and
inspiring medium for raising consciousness and mobilizing local action to this global
threat. During the afternoon, the students rotated between disciplines so they all met and
worked with faculty having different expertise.
In Performing Arts, theatre skills helped young people confront this daunting
problem by helping them acquire a clear, persuasive voice and project a positive, open
attitude even to the last row of the audience. Students learned specific techniques to
access our own emotional experiences, as a way to identify and work with feelings that a
global problem of such immensity brings up in us. They tapped into energy that will help
them be leaders in the coming social changes that global warming requires.
In the Science of Climate Change, students investigated the global carbon cycle,
current and future fuels (their characteristics and carbon-intensity), and the greenhouse
effect. They worked in small groups and created large posters in order to do peer
3
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
teaching. A subgroup of students used portable watt meters to measure the electrical
power use of common household and campus appliances – assuming the persona of
guerrilla energy efficiency experts as they monitored soda dispensers and microwaves.
These meters allowed a graphic demonstration of the efficiency of compact fluorescent
lighting.
Through the strand BodyEarth, students connected climate change to their own
lives, to who they are, and to how they interact and experience the environment around
them. Through engaging all their senses, the students experienced the reality that we are
living organisms in relationship to and part of the planet, that reducing our carbon
footprint is not an action to fix some big problem beyond us, but to address our own
health and well being and the health and well being of everything we hold dear.
Activities included movement, discussion, and quiet reflection, being in the woods, and
possibly the silliest and most fun activity, eating cake to connect and appreciate how our
bodies rely continuously on what the earth provides. This strand helped bring balance and
integration to the students by providing them a place to express and experience their
feelings amidst a packed schedule of electives and presentations on global climate
change.
In Current Issues and Youth Activism, students assessed how they could take
effective political and social action locally to respond to this global threat. They
practiced being able to speak knowledgeably and convincingly about the scientific
evidence to skeptics or to the uninformed, and role-played strong verbal arguments for
policy changes. In Socratic discussion, they explored the disconnect between the
overwhelming scientific evidence for global warming and the apparent inaction, denial,
and/or paralysis of politicians who are not addressing the threat. They deepened this
understanding by analyzing the perspectives, interests, and motivations of various
stakeholders in the debate by role-playing. In small groups, they researched the efforts of
those who have been taking political action. Students made recommendations for action
at the national and state policy level and by designing peer-education programs.
Outside specialists were an important part of the curriculum and brought new and
different ideas to the Institute. We recruited local specialists who could speak with the
students in small groups regarding “solutions” to the problem of climate change.
Students were able to choose and spend 35 minutes each in six of the 22 workshop
offerings. These workshops touched on diverse aspects of politics, policy, science, conflict
resolution, communications, outreach, media, alternative energy, conservation, transportation,
sustainability, local farming, and the arts (http://uvm.edu/giv/givwinter2007 has a complete
list of speakers and their topics). The goal of these rotations was to expose students to a
wide range of ideas and people while showing that many people were already taking
meaningful actions to address climate change.
We ended the activities with Five Steps Forward, an exercise where the students
developed personal action plans detailing what positive steps they would take personally
and in their communities to affect change. We closed the weekend with a ceremony and
celebration where students presented to their peers using a variety of means including
puppetry, murals, and performance. The ceremony concluded with the students and
faculty standing up to declare their commitments for change followed by a graduation
where each student received their diploma, an energy-efficient compact fluorescent light.
Students left with the feeling that they were on their way to developing enough selfconfidence to be effective public speakers for this issue they feel so passionately about.
4
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
Outcomes
The outcomes were overwhelmingly positive and can be evaluated two ways. We
did formal assessment that blended knowledge and attitude surveys administered before
and after the weekend. Students were asked to self-assess their knowledge and attitudes
on a 1-5 scale that ranged from I don’t have a clue to I know exactly (see graph below).
From these surveys, we learned that the weekend cohort was already motivated and
knowledgeable. Their biggest gain (1.5 pts) was in their knowledge of evidence for
climate change in New England, the topic of our keynote speaker. Students came into
weekend very willing to take action (4.6 pts) and made least gains there (0.1 pts). They
made large gains in their understanding of how humans change climate (the science
strand), how climate change could affect Vermont (the keynote speaker), how to take
action (all strands and workshops), and how to reduce emissions (specialist workshops).
Anecdotal written student responses tell the story and repeatedly mention the
amount they learned, how the Winter Weekend changed them personally, and how it
primed them for action.
This weekend was the most motivating, inspiring, incredible weekend of my life.
With the information I gathered, I will be prepared to create positive change. I
feel enlightened.
This weekend gave me more faith in my generation. It was nice to be with
people who are all working for the common good.
5
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
It was depressing and encouraging, liberating and frustrating, hard and fun.
That the adults had so much confidence that we could change the world.
Enjoyed learning the ways I could help personally.
I met incredible, passionate students and collaborated with them to make
change. Incorporating art and science was important. It’s great to see it
addressed with different subjects.
Issues for the students and some faculty included a change in approach from
previous Winter Weekends as well as information overload, lack of sleep, a need for
more hands-on activities, and requests for more time to openly discuss issues with their
peers.
The broader community responded well to our program. The President of the
Vermont Senate asked to speak to the program’s young adults, taking time out of his very
busy schedule to open the Winter Weekend. Our recruiting efforts for outside specialists
generated much interest. The adults who presented workshops felt it was an important
goal for them to reach a young, motivated audience. We provided a small honorarium
and invited the specialists to meals, but the fact that most took time on a weekend to be
with the students, speaks volumes. The media also responded to press releases, with at
least one on-site newspaper reporter and one local television crew appearing over the
weekend.
We encourage anyone interested in running a similar program to examine the Winter
Weekend website at http://uvm.edu/giv/givwinter2007 and to contact the authors of this
paper. Putting this all together took many people, many months but the results were
worth it. We are catalyzing change and empowering students to make change. Here’s
how one student summed up the weekend.
[The] weekend was excellent and changed my life….I’m inspired; I want to make
people listen to me and listen to global warming. Before I came here I didn’t
know a lot about global warming. We hadn’t spent a lot of time talking about it
in school and I wasn’t very concerned. I want to walk out of here and start to
make a difference, and I want to get started NOW.
Important Links
The Governor's Institutes of Vermont (http://giv.org), a member of the National
Conference of Governor's Schools (http://ncogs.org), has served more than 7,000 highly
motivated students from virtually every high school in the state since the Institutes were
established in 1982. Many gained the confidence and encouragement to be the first in
their families to go on to college. All came away knowing themselves better, more clearly
defining their capabilities and goals, and seeing the world in a new and brighter light.
The Institutes open the world to talented Vermont students.
6
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
Short author bios
Paul Bierman ([email protected]) is a Professor of Geology and Natural Resources at the
University of Vermont. Now in his 13th year as a faculty member of GIV, he teaches both in the
summer and winter Institutes. He has a BA degree from Williams College and his Ph.D. from the
University of Washington.
Peter Gould ([email protected]) has a doctorate in interdisciplinary studies from Brandeis, and
has performed and taught politically-engaged theatre for 25 years all over the United States. He
teaches Spanish at Marlboro College and the School for International Training, and works with
young people at the New England Youth Theatre, the Governor's Institute on the Arts, and his
own Get Thee to the Funnery Shakespeare camps in northern Vermont.
Jasmine Lamb ([email protected]) has worked as the Director of Student Life for the
Governor’s Institute on the Arts for many years. She is a mediator, teacher, and writer living in
Montpelier, Vermont. Her growing passion is in what she calls ListeningArts, which uses
movement, writing, storytelling, and stillness as ways to expand our capacity to listen to
ourselves and others.
Christine Massey ([email protected]) works on science education initiatives in the
Education and Geology Departments at the University of Vermont. She directs the high school
Science & Technology Governor’s Institute, in both summer and winter, and directs the UVM
Perkins Museum Environmental Science Day Camp for elementary students. Christine holds a
BA from Carleton College and an MS from the University of Washington, both in Geology.
Simon Norton ([email protected]) has been the Co-Director of the Vermont Governor's
Institute on Current Issues for Youth Activism and the Program Director of the S.I.T. Youth
Peacebuilding and Leadership programs since 2001. He lives in Brattleboro, Vermont, and
teaches global issues, civics, leadership, peacebuilding to youth from all over the world. Simon
holds a B.A. in International Studies from the School for International Training and a Masters in
Education from the Harvard University.
Jean Olson ([email protected]) has been Executive Director of the Governor's Institutes of
Vermont since 1994. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Vermont researching
the academic, social, and emotional needs of high-potential learners and is also the President
Elect of the National Conference of Governor's Schools (NCOGS).
Luke Reusser ([email protected]) is a doctoral student in the Rubenstein School of
Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. Through his research, he
investigates the impacts of human activities on natural rates of landscape change and erosion
along both the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as the north island of New Zealand.
John Ungerleider ([email protected]) is a Professor of Conflict
Transformation at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. He directs
SIT’s International Youth Peacebuilding Camps and the Vermont Governor’s Institute on Current
Issues and Youth Activism. (www.sit.edu/youth) A former Fulbright senior scholar in Cyprus,
Professor Ungerleider founded the Child Labor Education and Action (CLEA) project for
Vermont teens working to fight oppressive child labor around the world.
7